Automated

How to spell automated

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce automated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does automated mean?

1. adjectiveOperated by machines or computers with little or no direct human control.
2. verbConverted a manual task or process so that it runs by machine or software.

Automated in a sentence

• adjective

  The warehouse uses an automated system to sort parcels overnight.

• verb

  The team automated the invoicing process to save hours each week.

• adjective

  Customers reach an automated menu before speaking to a real agent.

• verb

  Last year the bank automated most of its routine paperwork.

Where does automated come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek automatos, meaning 'acting of itself' or 'self-moving', a compound of autos 'self' and a second element related to 'willing' or 'animated by one's own impulse'. The Greek sense survives in 'automaton', a self-operating machine, which English borrowed in the 1600s. From the adjective 'automatic' came the verb 'automate', a back-formation that appeared in the 1950s when factories began replacing manual work with self-running machinery. 'Automated' is simply the past tense and participle of that verb, and it spread quickly through industry and computing. The spelling stays regular: the 'auto-' beginning and the '-ate' verb ending are both reliable, so the only real care needed is the unstressed middle vowel in the '-mat-' syllable.

How the word is built

• auto- (self)
• mat (from Greek matos: willing, acting)
• -ate (verb)
• -ed (past/participle suffix)